I bought a home in Goa on my overdraft
BY ROSIE WATERHOUSE

On impulse, on holiday, on my own, after the break-up of a 14-year relationship, I bought an apartment in Goa. It was January last year, cost £8,750 the price of a small car and I put it on my overdraft.

I just got carried away. And I wasn't alone.

Every Brit sitting in the beach bar cum restaurant at Majorda, a village in south Goa, was talking about the newly built apartments. Many were snapped up on the spot by holidaymakers who for years have been returning to this fabulous 20-mile beach.

Two other British couples had signed up that week and I overheard them chatting about their plans. So I just plunged in, buying the one remaining studio apartment.

Of course, I knew it was not sensible to buy a property in India! on a whim, with no survey, no solicitor and not a clue about the legal niceties such as title to the property but all I knew was that I wanted a place of my own in Goa, in Eden Gardens, more than anything.

I signed a sale agreement with the local developer Menino Mascarenhas, who assured me that I would have to formally secure my legal ownership at a later date.

Three weeks ago, I returned to Goa to stay in my new home for the first time. The nine hour direct flight from Gatwick allowed plenty of doubts and fears to surface but when I finally arrived at my door by taxi, the sight took my breath away. A welcoming light was on dimmer, illuminating a spotless, polished granite floor and hand carved teak furniture. Three incense sticks slowly burned in the anti-mosquito device plugged in the wall, filling the room with an exotic aroma. And my brand-new white fridge was chilling a bottle of Kingfisher lager.

So as the sun rose and the dawn chorus of birds, dogs, goats and chickens grew louder, I drank the wonderfully cold Indian beer and gazed around my beautiful new hideaway.

Over the past 16 months, Eden Gardens has grown into a small community of Brits, a complex of 14 apartments in two blocks echoing traditional Portuguese style, with gardens and a swimming pool.

The British are buying holiday and retirement homes in Goa at an extraordinary rate. The resort even has its own property publication, Homes And Estates, with 2,000 subscribers 60 per cent of them British. The growth of cheap charter flights and holidays direct from Gatwick, Manchester, even Moscow has made Goa a popular international destination. Visitor numbers are expected to double from 250,000 to 500,000 annually within five years.

The cost of living is so cheap, the location and climate so exotic and the Goans so friendly that visitors return again and again. And in the past few years increasing numbers have been buying property.

Dozens of new developments are being constructed, mainly in the popular beach resorts of North Goa.

I prefer the much quieter South Goa, and since 2001 have been visiting Majorda, a small village about 20 minutes from the airport, for winter holidays. It's not just the climate. I loved Goan food fabulous fresh seafood and fragrant, spicy curries.

Almost every household keeps pigs and hens, so most menus contain fresh produce, and I love sitting under the stars at the MishMar restaurant/shack on the beach, enjoying a fish curry with the sound of the sea and feel of the sand under your feet. A meal costs about Pounds 7 for two, with beer. But ultimately, I decided, what made Goa special was the people charming and caring, yet enterprising and funny; a unique mix of East and West, English-speaking, Indian with Portuguese ancestry.

My neighbours in Eden Gardens are an unlikely collection of northerners and southerners. They include Graham and Linda Metcalf, a retired couple from Bath; Graham and Mandy Burton, who run a pub in Nottingham; and Roger and Claire Sparrow, who have a cafe in Dartford, Kent.

The first person to buy was Vivien Morrison, a larger-than-life Scot who gave up her catering business in London to live in Goa and marry Nordhan Pradhan, an Indian she met four years ago in Majorda.

One of my most memorable experiences was attending the ceremony when Vivien invited five Buddhist monks to bless their apartment and then drove them back to their monastery in her 30-year-old American Willys Jeep.

We all bought on impulse and had families and friends who thought we were mad. There have been teething troubles with unfinished works and occasionally empty water tanks. But, we remind ourselves, this is India.

We residents of Eden Gardens are now in the process of establishing legal ownership. The first stage has been for Menino to sign an agreement giving us power of attorney to sell the property if we choose.

Then we will obtain a deed of sale, establishing legal ownership, either by acquiring a 99-year lease or setting up a company in India to own the property. This will mean any profits will be taxed. But then buying in Goa is something you should only do if you can afford to lose it.

There are places in Goa to suit all tastes. Majorda is quiet with no nightlife other than good food and company and no new development, so potential property hunters will need to look elsewhere.

My neighbours would curse me if I spoilt our Garden of Eden.

ALSO GOING IN GOA

CURTORIM, Pounds 60,000: Typical of period properties in Goa with its three bedrooms,vast reception room with original tiled floor, working well and original carved wood furniture. Period homes tend to be more pricey than modern ones. Agent: Goa Homes, 00 91 832 247 2115

COLVA, Pounds 18,500: One-bedroom, furnished apartment in a complex five minutes from the beach. Agent: Smart Move Estates, 020 8958 6666

COLVA, Pounds 29,800: Threebedroom semi on three storeys. Communal pool. Agent: Keith Morling Property Management, 020 8541 1030